No. 3 Bulldogs Take Third

Kosir and Johnson go upwind during a day of Yale sailing practice (credit: Bill Healy).

Sep 15, 2013

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – On its first weekend of racing since the spring, the No. 3 Yale women's sailing finished third place out of 17 teams. This marks the fourth year in a row that the Bulldogs have finished in the top three at the Toni Deutsch Regatta. The regatta was hosted by MIT and sailed in FJs on the Charles River.

Saturday was a full day of racing with 12 races being completed in both divisions. Competitors were on the water for nearly seven hours in a shifty northwesterly breeze, yet the Bulldogs managed to remain consistent throughout the day. In fact, they left the venue on Saturday sitting first in the overall standings.

Unfortunately, Sunday brought less wind and racing had to be postponed for a while at the beginning of the day. Eventually the fighting southerly and northerly winds compromised and allowed for enough wind to fill from the west to get some races off. Five more races were completed in challenging conditions.

Two local teams, No. 2 Boston College and unranked MIT, sailed particularly well on Sunday, boosting them past the Bulldogs into first and second place, respectively. However, the Bulldogs still finished far ahead of the rest of the pack. 67 points separated them and the fourth-place Brown Bears.

Junior skipper Morgan Kiss and senior crew Amanda Salvesen raced in A division where they set a great tone for the rest of their season. They only finished outside of the top five in three of the 17 races.

Salvesen remarked that "it was good to get back into it." She felt that their starts were mediocre after having not started in a big fleet for such a long time, but she said they "definitely improved over the regatta."

In B division, junior skipper Urska Kosir and sophomore crew Emily Johnson sailed lights out on Saturday. They finished either first or second in 8 out of the 12 races that day. On Sunday they struggled a little bit to find that groove again, but they finished third place in B division nevertheless.

The Bulldogs will get some more practice under their belts this week before hitting the race track again next weekend. They will be heading to Dartmouth for the Mrs. Hurst Bowl.